mr. huff, i want to thank you for your service. know that that you just happened to be in a met with you'rech and that's why appearing here today, i want to thank you for your service. i know you are not in a position you have to make these decisions. it's above your pay grade. thank you forto your willingness to come this onning to talk to us here this committee and i do abovetand that these are your pay grade. so thank you for coming forward and answering the questions that were put to you this evening and thank you for your service. back.hat i yield >> thank you. inspectorinterim general's report i want to ask you about a couple things on executive 4 of the summary there's this statement. we are not reporting the resultings of our clinical in this interim report on delay of appointment resulted in a a delay in diagnosis or treep particularly for those veterans who died while on a wait list. the assessments require analysis of v.a. and nonv.a. medical andrds, death certificates autopsy results. we have made requests to appropriat

mooney and mr. huff, could you comment? >> we value collaboration and working to provide the veterans the best care. >> i work hard every day to, you know, do my job to get the information the committee needs. >> i took note because it was the whistle blower himself suggested that we try another approach in terms of trying to get accurate information from the va employee's. is congress going to get a list from the va of what other facilities have used? schedule practices similar to those? i would like to know if my va hospital serves my area is using the same practice. >> i believe the va is conducting a nationwide audit. i don't believe there is any intention not to share that with congress when it is completed. >> this audit is the very issue i am raising. how about how do we get a good audit and that concludes my question. >> dr. row you are recognized. >> i am a veteran and physician and i trained at a va, some of my training was at a va. it is disturbing to me we have created this uncertainty among our veterans in the

i do think it's important and i would note mr. huff is not a political appointee. he's a civilian civil servant and he's a veteran and i'm not sure why you're here mr. hoff but i appreciate you coming here and standing in and being willing to answer the questions. i think as we go through this painting with a broad generalized brush is not going to be helpful but this desired to hold accountable it's not personal in terms of personally trying to damage someone. it's personal but the care for those veterans in its personal about this believe that if someone cannot be held accountable for such egregious dereliction of their duty how can we expect ford for it to get better? so i hope and i would ask him and i think the statement is coming through on this that yes we need the data and yes we don't need to jump to conclusions and yes people deserve due process. the veterans on the list that mr. huelskamp was talking about trying to get that right i would suggest are put forward i think one of the things i think we are going to find out in this is that why it's a large s

mr. huff, do you share this results ability? >> congresswoman -- >> yes or no? >> a civil servant and also a veteran. i'm not a supervisor. i'm a staff level federal employee and do the best job i have. >> thus the responsibility lie with the secretary? he still believed in his of a distended to a five alarm fire? were in the world as the years since it? i can sense the urgency of this committee. democrats and republicans. our nation has totally lost its trust. it is our responsibility to center and continue to maintain oversight. we can't find out where the buck stops. i have asked for the secretary's resignation when the american legion report cannot. you have heard several different people asking the question. does the buck stopped with you? do you accept this responsibility? are you ready to accept this response ability? look in the eyes of the american people and veterans and say what i know what you don't know. what do you know that you can tell the american people that they can learn into a half hours >> congresswoman, also this remains and caring for the

>> no, sir. >> mr. huff, who's your immediate supervisor? > mr. mark hone. >> ok. did he have any conversation with mr. hone about your testimony here today? >> yes, sir. >> and what was the nature of that conversation or communication? >> to provide clear, accurate, and honest responses to your questions. >> you know, it's very troubling to me that we talk about accountability and making sure we know the facts here. but when you don't know the name of the people that actually did the destruction it seems like that would be the first thing when you went to phoenix you'd find out who did it. >> so congressman, my goal in going to phoenix was to understand the process. i knew that the inspector general was there. they were there to assess intent and to identify if there was responsibility or accountability for -- >> without names of people, how does that occur? how does -- don't you ask the person why did you destroy this evidence? these lists? why did you do it? >> these -- i did not speak to any of the schedulers -- >> did anyone on your staff do that? >> pardon? >

huff, does the responsibility lie with secretary shinseki? do you believe in his leadership ability to stand up to a five-alarm fire? where in the world is the urgency? okay, listen up! i'm re-workin' the menu. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah! [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition inharge™. >>> fox news alert now. not an easy day for jay carney as the president's spokesperson. he continues to be hammered by a slew of reporters now on the v.a. scandal. and whether or not the president still has confidence in secretary shinseki. and also, what about this criminal investigation that now some members of congress are suggesting should happen? jay carney continues to deflect many of these questions about when the president's going to respond yet again to this or when he might take action and ask for the resignation of eric shinseki. we are keeping a close eye on this briefing. we will bring you more fi

. >> mr. huff -- >> five senate democrats are joining republicans and calling for shinseki to resign, mark ushg call, jeanne shaheen and john walb. political columnist congressman patrick murphy and he's the first iraq war vet to serve in congress and he's also an america s nbc contributor. gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. >> hi, tamron. >> patrick, i'll start with you on this, and looking at the numbers and the information coming from the report we were told a lot of the decisions would be made pending this information that's been revealed that's been stunning. the numbers are absolutely staggering to hear that people waited 115 days. it goes beyond unacceptable. >> i absolutely agree with you, tamron. this is criminal negligence. the folks who doctored the books and may have resulted in veterans' lives being lost is absolutely unacceptable and general shinseki called me yesterday on this issue and the report that he ordered which came out yesterday, he's now relieved seven people,

michael huff. the scope of this is subpoena will encompass all e-mails and other written correspondence where these parties discussed the destruction of an alternate waitlist, regardless of what name it was given, and which form in which it was cap. pursuant to rule 11, clause two b of the house of representatives and rule three of clause g of this committee, we have a motion before us that is at the desk. i will ask that the clerk will read the motion. ranking member michelle moved to the committee authorized issuance of a subpoena. this address in whole or in part the destruction and disappearance of an alternate or interim waitlist with regards to the carl t hayden veterans affairs medical center located in phoenix arizona, in which secretary should seki, robert , mr.l and thomas lynch will gone, general counsel, or any other representative of the , dr.e of general counsel ron mauer, can -- chairman of the congressional house leader. reference too a said e-mail or other written correspondence. >

michael huff, congressional relations officer. the scope of this subpoena will encompass all other written correspondence with these parties discussing the disruption of an alternate waitlist pursuant to rule number 11, of the house of representatives of this committee, we have a motion before us that is at the desk. and i'll ask that the court will read the motion. >> ranking member says the committee authorize this to eric shinseki, secretary of the u.s. department of veterans affairs. for the department to produce all e-mails and written correspondence sent between april 9 and may 8 at 6:00 o'clock p.m. which addresses in whole or in part the destruction of disappearance of an alternate or interim waitlist with regard to the veterans affairs medical center located in arizona in which the secretary and the undersecretary for health and thomas lynch for clinical health operations and management, plus the general counsel or any other representative of the office of >> the chairman sent a letter, the response we have received yeste

. >> mrs. joan moony and michael huff. the letter reads the purpose much this meeting is failure to come pliep with a seena duces tecum. it's a latin phrase that means bring with you under penalty of punishment. we have a camera waiting to see. bill: the outrage of the president's comments. it's not just coming from republicans, is it? >> two georgia democrats were talking about john barrow and david scott or the first democrats to break ranks. david scott had strong words for the president. he said he's disappointed with the president. he said we need you to roll up your sleeves and start to visit these hospitals and start to make things happen. take a look at the president's schedule. he's going to have a round table meeting with ceos. he's going to look at wait times in major airports. he's traveling to cooperstown for the opening of the baseball hall of fame. tonight he's californiaing to chicago for two fundraiser -- he's traveling to chicago f two fundraisers. martha: the president's comments not sitting well with ve

amazingly, though, like some of these 19th century quotes that we're hearing from arthur delaney's "huff post" piece today. >> they do, rev. they've taken nostalgia to an entirely different extreme and you can see how this cuts across a swath of issues that they are interested in, but mr. ryan and his colleagues, first of all, they've got to know poor people have friends, they have souls, they go to church, poor people are accountable, and the reality is, there are structural limitations to reducing unemployment in this society. there aren't enough jobs, so to moralize them and to overly moralize them seems inappropriate. the reality is, rev, they should take that moral compass argument and apply it to the 1%, apply it to the wealthiest amongst us and see if they are giving back enough, see how they conduct their lives in an everyday sense, is consistent with what they believe should be the morals of the country. to sort of blame poor folk seems not only misdirected, but inaccurate. >> you know, arthur, there's not only soup or welfare, it's other issues. fdr, he signed the first minimum

you can do it, mr. speaker. you can do it and you really haven't done it. >> i appreciate your opinion, thank you. >>> let's bring in ben ferguson, the host of "the ben ferguson show" and mark is host of "mark huff live. request" immigration reform in an election year? no way this is possible. why not now? to jorge ramos' point, why not now? boehner himself said he wants to get it done. >> a lot of republicans want to get it done. they don't want a bill no one has read. find me one u.s. senator that voted in favor of the 1,300-plus-page bill that has read it or knows what's in it. this is obamacare 2.0 as nancy pelosi put it. we don't know what's in it until weigh pass it and i think that's the concern. of the republicans said let's deal with this piece by piece. there's no sense in reforming the entire system and immigration laws if we don't secure our borders. it has to be together. and democrats say we don't want to deal with the border. we don't want to do anything with the border. we want to give a big chun